


Brighter than Sunshine ~ Volume 1, Chapter 2 "Origin Stories"

by Cassie_Sandsmark, Somuchbraver



Series: Brighter Than Sunshine Volume 1 [2]
Category: DCU
Genre: DC AU - Freeform, F/F, Femslash, elements from the new cinematic universe, future chapters will be NC-17, gendered slur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 09:11:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3644775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cassie_Sandsmark/pseuds/Cassie_Sandsmark, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somuchbraver/pseuds/Somuchbraver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After their first date was derailed by a surprise supervillain appearance, Cassie goes to Samantha's to make it up to her, and winds up giving the other girl her backstory. But Samantha has an Origin story of her own to share, and Cassie is surprised and excited to discover that the girl she has a crush on is every bit as 'superhuman' as she is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brighter than Sunshine ~ Volume 1, Chapter 2 "Origin Stories"

**Author's Note:**

> This story is about a romantic relationship between Wonder Girl (Cassie Sandsmark) and Rule 63'd (female) version of 'Superboy.' We've omitted the majority of the Superfamily from our universe to make this work and put this story 10 years after the events in Man of Steel. 'Superman' has been active for at least that long, and Cassie herself (as Wonder Girl) has been active for a little over 3 years, since she was 15. 
> 
> Follow Our Tumblr at (http://brighterthnsunshine.tumblr.com/) for fan-art, photo manips, information related to our story as it progresses, and more!
> 
> Mission Statement: Lady superheroes need to make out more.
> 
> Your comments and/or kudos are oxygen to us!

 

## Brighter than Sunshine ~ Volume 1, Chapter 2 "Origin Stories"

[Brighter than Sunshine Tumblr ](http://brighterthnsunshine.tumblr.com)

 

Cassandra felt both conflicted and confused as she leapt into the sky after Anomaly, leaving Samantha standing on the sidewalk out in front of the bistro without an explanation. Knowing that her 'date' had seen her, recognized her, in her public persona, without her disguise, was troubling enough on its own merits.  _That_  wasn't a secret lightly to be shared - with anyone. The blonde girl hadn't had many friends in High School, but even her _closest_ friends hadn't known about her double-life as the littlest Amazon. But Cassie also thought she recognized some of the signs of a girl storming out on a late date in Samantha's face and demeanor - at least going by what she'd seen in movies and on television - and her spirits sunk as she realized that she'd pretty much just stood the prettiest girl on campus up - and that she was flying  _away_  from her now, without even the tiniest explanation. Briefly, she considered turning around, going back and explaining...

But no. If there was one thing Donna - _her 'big sister,'_  Donna  _Troy,_ _Darkstar_ , the  _previous_  Wonder Girl - had taught her about being a superhero, it was that the safety of civilians  _always_  came first. Before secret identity, before work, before love, life, friendship, and family commitments. Before explaining to the pretty girl with the dark hair who you suspected  _might_  have a bit of a nasty temper that you hadn't really stood her up, you'd just been caught up in ...  _work stuff._  Unavoidable work stuff. Having the privilege of superpowers came with some serious responsibilities, and as much as it burned her, Cassie couldn't turn around. She had to finish this first.

Fortunately, now that both she and her opponent were off the ground,  _finishing_  didn't look like it was going to be a terribly complicated affair. Anomaly didn't seem to possess any flight, hover, or anti-gravity powers - not even 'super'-jumping - which meant that as long as he was in the air where she'd put him, the big metal-bound brute was at her mercy. That was a good thing, too, because in her date-night outfit, Cassandra had failed to include her bracelets and her lasso, so she was forced to rely primarily on her strength to find a way to put the brute down.

Catching up to him, Cassandra glanced down around her at the city beneath them. The angle of Anomaly's trajectory was changing fast, and although at the moment he was still scrabbling at the air, his arms swinging wildly as he screamed ineffectual curses at her, soon he would be crashing down into another populated part of the city, and with his metal form, the impact could destroy half a city block. Cassie needed to find somewhere safe to dump him, and soon. Spotting an abandoned parking lot a few blocks from midtown, she grabbed hold of Anomaly, intending to fling him into it. Unfortunately, his wild, desperate scrabbling managed to catch in her coat, and he ripped it halfway off of her, tearing the fabric and smashing his metal head into hers as they started tumbling towards the ground together.

"Screw you, Wonder Bitch! If I'm going down," he roared, trying to wrap his arms around her much smaller body, "You're coming with me!" But wriggling around in his embrace, she bashed the back of her head into his, hearing his nose break with a satisfying crunch - despite the painful concussion that she was sure would bring on a headache later - and slipped down and out of his arms.

"Sorry, douchebag, only one of us is going down today." Grabbing him by the legs, Cassie spun Anomaly around a few times, and then with a shout threw him towards the abandoned car-park. For about ten seconds he just screamed, all the way down, arms flailing as he tried desperately to slow his fall. But then he hit. A small shockwave of dust and dirt and rubble exploded from the impact, and hovering a few hundred feet above him, Cassandra thought maybe she'd brought the brute down. But when Anomaly started groggily climbing to his feet, she pulled out her last surprise weapon.

 _She_  dropped. Straight down. 500 feet, and collided with him feet first, driving him back into the pavement. The impact shattered the granite and concrete under her opponent for an area of up to ten yards across, and left him unconscious and moaning, slowly reverting back to his normal, human-skin appearance. Stepping off of him, brushing the dirt off of her torn coat and waiting as squad cars pulled up, Cassandra hung around long enough for Metropolis PD's MCU division to pull up, collar Anomaly with an ability-inhibiting shock collar, and drag him off to STAR Lab's holding facilities to await processing.

"Good job, kid," The cigar chewing Officer-on-Site Lieutenant Dan Turpin growled approvingly at Cassandra while his men loaded Anomaly into the back of a Metahuman transport van, tipping his bowler hat at her. "Heard you called yourself ' _Wonder Girl_ ,' back there. That mean you're affiliated with the Amazon Princess?" Cassandra nodded, giving the officer her Themascyrian Embassy contacts so that they could get some funds from the Amazon nation to cover damages to city property. Then, with a smile and a wave, she lifted off again, flying slowly back in the direction of the school.

 

* * *

 

After her date took off in pursuit of a supervillian, Samantha hung around the bistro for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do. She reasoned that Cassie  _might_ come back, but then she figured she might also have totally blown her cover and that the date might be completely canceled. If that was the case, Samantha didn't really want to hang around just to find that out. So she looked at her cell phone once, then twice, to be sure that Cassie hadn't tried to get in touch with her, and then pocketed it. Reluctantly, she headed for home.

Meanwhile Cassandra coasted in slowly towards the campus area of Metropolis, back in the direction of the Bistro. Dropping out of the sky to land on top of a row of boutiques lining the street opposite of the bistro, she then leapt quietly down into an alleyway between two shorter blocks and snuck up behind the vans parked across the street from the bank where Anomaly had begun his rampage. Moving around unobtrusively, hiding her face from the cameras and reporters and cops who were still swarming the area, she retrieved her purse from under the car where she had left it, then made her way discreetly towards the Bistro. Slipping inside the restaurant, she looked around quickly for Samantha, but not seeing her date she reluctantly concluded that the other girl had gone home, and slipped out again. Walking around a corner into _another_ alleyway, this time behind the restaurant, she flung herself into the skies again, deciding it was probably best that she not return to campus - dressed as she was - until well after dark, in case blurry pictures of her face and her outfit were already plastered all over TV screens and web-pages.

Landing on top of a corner hotel - the  _Met U Plaza Marriot -_ just two blocks from campus proper, for an hour or so Cassie lay on her back and stared up at the sky, watching the blue clouds slowly turn to cloudy stars, grumbling about tonight's turn of events and trying to decide what to do about Samantha. Pulling out her cellphone every few minutes, she repeatedly considered calling her, or texting her, to explain, but she relucantly decided that she needed to talk to the girl face to face, instead. Firstly, the 'secret identity' conversation was too important to happen over the phone. Second... well, she figured Samantha was owed a genuine apology for missing their date, especially after all the anticipation that they'd both been experiencing leading up to it. But how to say  _'I'm Sorry I missed our date because I had to arm-wrestle a super-villain for almost an hour instead?'_ That was a new situation for Cassandra. After about forty-five minutes of deliberation, she decided on flowers.

About ten minutes later, after buying a bouquet of roses from a street vendor outside of an Italian restaurant and across the street from the campus Drama Club and Theatre, Cassandra flew up into the air over the campus and pulled her cellphone out to send Samantha a text. It was just after ten o'clock now, but she was hoping Samantha hadn't gone to bed yet.

_< Can we talk? Face to face?>_

 

* * *

 

Samantha had been up reading for some time, wondering whether her enigmatic date would call and try to explain things, but after about 10 pm she had written off the possibility, so when she received the text she was  _surprised_  to say the least. After a minute, she texted back. _< Yeah. Where?>_

The next text was immediate. _< Which hall are you in? What floor?>_

Samantha texted back her hall, floor, and room number before running to the mirror to check her hair and put her bra back on.

 

* * *

 

Hovering over the campus, Cassandra raised her eyebrows hopefully and took a deep, nervous breath as she received the second reply, running her hands through her hair and grimacing at the rips and tears in her new coat and her hose. She coasted slowly over the campus in the direction of Samantha’s dorm hall, and when she reached it, she did some mental calculation to try and figure out which room was Samantha’s. The blonde girl was still worried that her current outfit might give her identity away to some of her school mates if she just tried to walk in the front door, so instead she floated down the side of the building to what she thought was Samantha’s window, and then knocked on it. When a girl she didn’t recognize moved the curtain, she dashed away before she could be seen, and then recalculating, knocked on the correct window instead.

Samantha turned her head and frowned at the window for a moment before she blinked and realized that her flight-capable friend might be outside. She moved to the edge of her bed and reached over to open it. As she'd suspected, Cassandra was hovering just outside the window, the wind playing through her blonde locks and swirling the somewhat tattered coat and skirt she was wearing as she floated in mid-air. The taller blonde girl was smiling weakly at Samantha, holding out a bouquet of red roses. “I’m so, so sorry.”

Samantha couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her. “Hey you. You look alright for someone who just fought a huge guy made of metal.” She took the flowers and stepped back from the window.

Cassie continued to smile nervously, waving at the window “…can I come in?”

Samantha nodded, taking a deep breath into the flowers in her arms. Having been on the verge of turning in, she was wearing snug satin sleep shorts and a silk tank with a bra underneath that she had added at the last second. She set the flowers on the dresser, her hair and makeup still more or less intact, but her earrings removed.

Cassie grabbed hold of the window frame and eased herself inside, setting her feet down on the floor of her bedroom and closing the window behind her. When she turned back to Samantha, she let a rush of air out and grinned. “…You look beautiful,” she said, softly, biting her lip out of nervousness and playing with her hands in her pockets.

The dark haired girl in the satin sleep clothes gave a little smile. “Well, I did better at the beginning of the night, but I got a little upstaged by--  _flying_.”

Cassandra blushed and ducked her head, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly. “Yeah, so…you saw that…”

Samantha smiled. “I saw a lot. You’re _waaay_ scrappier than I would have guessed.”

The blonde girl grinned a little and shrugged one shoulder back in response. “Well, I  _am_  a little tougher than I look… But I’m sorry, that’s not at all how I wanted this evening… our evening … to go.”

Samantha smirked and shrugged. “I didn’t figure you planned a wrestling match in the middle of the date, though if you  _did_  it might be a little bit impressive.”

The other girl laughed, shrugging out of her coat slowly and then wincing as her sore back and shoulders protested. “Oh, well, next time, I’ll make sure to ask if you’d like ring side seats.”

Samantha raised an eyebrow at the wince. “Need to sit down?” She walked around the bed, chewing the inside of her lip a little and deliberating. She wasn’t sure what to do in reaction to this information, specifically, in respect to her own most important secret. “So you are…Wonder Girl. _Literally_ Wonder Girl?”

Cassandra nodded, looking around and noticing the computer chair by Samantha’s desk, pulling it out so that she could smooth her skirt out underneath herself and sit down. She bit the side of her lip as she nodded, too. “…yeah. I know I don’t look much like the pictures – blonde hair and all – but I promise I have a black wig in my bedroom. And a red lasso.”

Samantha raised her eyebrows and smirked, momentarily distracted by the detail. “A red lasso, huh? That’s only for business purposes?”

Cass laughed and blushed. “Uh, that item is … yes, strictly for business. It channels the… Thunderbolts of Jupiter.” She shrugged.

Samantha laughed. “That doesn’t make it sound less sexy at all.” She sat down at the end of her bed.

Cassie smiled and blushed, ducking her face for a moment and flicking her eyes up towards Samantha's. The silence between lasted for a moment or so, and then the blonde girl took a deep breath and winced again. “….So… did I mess this up?”

Samantha shook her head. “I don’t think you’re obligated to warn a first date that said date might be called on account of robbery.” She eyed her curiously. “I do have some inappropriately intrusive questions though.”

The blonde girl grinned back cautiously. “Aaaaaabout the superpowers or about the … flirting?”

Samantha chuckled and blushed. “Is superpowers the wrong answer?”

Cassie shrugged, and then shook her head. “Nah, I guess not. So… what’cha wanna know?” Inwardly, however, she was a little crestfallen.

Samantha shifted in her seat and pursed her lips for a moment before speaking again. “Did your powers just…start to  _happen_  one day?”

Cassie shook her head, crossing one leg over the other. “Uh, no, not really. I hear that happens for a lot of teen heroes, though. No, I… I was never supposed to have powers. Originally, I  _stole_  them.”

Samantha wet her lips and frowned a little. “I thought most people with powers started out in a lab or some sort of crime family.”

“Well,  _most_  … I don’t know. And I can’t divulge anyone else’s … secret identities and backstories, but labs, yeah those are fairly common.” Cassandra cocked her head to the side and closed an eye in thought, “Crime families. Well… I know a couple. But there are other kinds.” She looked critically at Samantha then, not flirting for once, but dead-serious, for the first time since they’d met. “…can you keep a serious secret?”

Sam’s eyes went mysteriously hopeful, like she had as much riding on the question as Cassie did.  _Because she did._  This was ridiculously early in any kind of relationship at all for this much trust, but Cassie didn’t seem to have much choice and Samantha had felt for a while now that she might come unglued if she couldn't talk to someone. “I can.”

Cassie took a deep breath, running her hand through her hair and shaking a few more bits of building brick crumbs out as she did so. “… you know who Diana, Princess of Themiscyra is, right? Wonder Woman?”

Samantha nodded. “Yeah, of course.”

“Well, a couple years ago, sheeeee… used to work for my mom, in Gateway City.” Cassie winced as she said it. Like she’d told Samantha, it wasn’t her place to divulge anyone else’s secret identity, but since she’d already accidentally revealed her own identity, she was eager to secure Samantha’s silence on that issue. She felt like a little back story was required, and…well…they did sort of overlap…

The blue-eyed girl raised an eyebrow. “Your mom who works with Greek artifacts? Isn't that a little on the nose?”

“Well, it’s, a little different with the Amazons. I mean, you read Captain America comics and the idea of ‘ _Secret Identity_ ’ seems so either-or: you either present as your PUBLIC, Superhero identity, or you present as your SECRET, civilian Identity, right?”

Samantha nodded. “Yeah, more or less.”

Cassandra nodded, lifting and then dropping her eyebrows. “Well, for the Amazons, since their real secret life is back on Paradise Island, any ‘secret identities’ they establish here in our world are just as invented as their Public superhero personae. They tend to use them and discard them …and invent new ones, whenever it suits them.”

Samantha blinked thoughtfully. “That sounds pretty cool.”

The girl with the green eyes shrugged. “Well, anyway, a couple years ago, Diana was working for my mom in Gateway City, and she had a handful of magical Amazon artifacts among her possessions.” Samantha nodded encouraging. Cassie winced and grimaced. “Well, there was a particularly bad day a few years ago, when I was fifteen. Diana – Wonder Woman – got in a fight with two of her personal A-List Supervillains: Dis and Hades. Hades had brought up some of the Horrors from Tartarus, and Diana was getting it handed to her.” She stopped and covered the sudden smile on her mouth, giggling a little. “DON’T tell her I said that, please.”

Samantha gave a little smirk. “I’m sure I’ll get a chance to rat you out, me and Wonder Woman being buddies and all.”

“Well don’t tell Donna, either.” She rolled her eyes. “The _actual_ Amazons get a bit touchy about external commentary on their battle performances.”

Samantha blinked and sat up straight. “Donna your sort-of sister Donna? That would explain some things…”

Cassie blinked, then smiled. “Oh, yeah, Donna. Donna Troy.  _Darkstar_ ,  _Troia_ , the original  _Wonder Girl._  And I’m not outing her – she’s not currently using a Secret Identity. That’s another thing about ‘secret identities.’ The fiction is so obsessed with day jobs and maintaining anonymity in your civilian life. But Donna just puts on a pair of jeans and some sunglasses and walks around – no one ever suspects she’s an Amazon princess.”

Sam looked a little awed by that, her smile growing slowly and her eyes lighting up. “That is seriously cool.”

Cassie nodded and grinned, encouraged by Samantha's excitement. “Well, there are some diplomatic civilian IDs that make the job easier, but trust me, from my line of work I can tell you that you can get a completely convincing fake ID for less than 500 dollars in any major city.”

One eyebrow shot up after the other and Samantha grinned. “So this story ends in some way with you saving Wonder Woman’s ass?”

Cassie  _hemmed_  and  _hawwed_  for a moment, and then winced. “Uhhh...yeah. I saw on the TV that Diana was getting beaten pretty badly. I kept waiting for her to get up and pull it out of the fire like she always did, or for one of her allies to show up and help her, but no one came. She couldn’t stay on her feet. So …I ran to her room, opened the locked drawer that I had snooped around in earlier and found the Gauntlets of Atlas and Greaves of Hermes and put them on, then flew downtown and tackled one of the Horrors.”

Samantha grinned and eyed her playfully. She was totally impressed. “So you’re a total badass.”

Cassie shrugged and smiled bashfully. “Well, it’s not like I did  _well_ in that fight. I’m sure there are still video clips of it on the internet. I think I got knocked through a couple buildings– but fortunately while I was being a puntable, pint-sized (I was still five feet tall) distraction, Diana was getting back on her feet and subduing Hades.”

Sam smiled. “I stand by badass. And careful where you’re throwing around the word pint-sized.”

Cassandra smirked back. “You’re at least a couple inches over five feet. And you’re cute-sized, not pint-sized at all.”

Samantha smirked back again. “Nice save. So after you saved the day, then you just had superpowers from there on out? I don’t currently see any…magic gauntlets.”

The blonde girl shook her head. “Not exactly,” she laughed, rolling her eyes, “Although Diana was grateful, she agreed with my mother that what I had done was reckless and dangerous. ‘I didn’t have the training, I didn’t know how to control my own strength, I didn’t have my mother’s approval…’ but I wouldn’t back down.” She grinned. “I insisted that even if she took the gauntlets away, and the greaves, that I would follow her out into the city without any powers. I was  _that_  committed to helping her out. SO finally, my mother and Diana agreed to let me use the gauntlets and greaves…  _provisionally_. Provided I keep up with my homework and respect curfews and bedtimes…” She smiled fondly. “That was a good year.” Then she grinned again. “When I turned 16, I got my own powers. I didn’t need the gauntlets and greaves anymore.”

Samantha leaned back on her palms and grinned, eyes sparkling. “So you’re a very stubborn badass. How fast can I lock in that second date?”

Cassie stuck out her lower lip, pouting a little. “Don’t you wanna hear how I got my own powers? That’s my favorite part.” She winked.

The other girl laughed. “I do. I’m just now very cognizant of the fact that you might just fly off any moment. Finish your story.”

“Well, you know about Diana, and Donna. They’re Amazons. Like… Greek Mythology Amazons. And if you’ve been following the news at all, you know that Circe, Ares, and Hades… well, they’re real too. They’re not really  _gods_  in like the literal sense, but they are exceptionally powerful, higher-plane entities who exist in an adjacent dimension. And two years ago, on my birthday… I sorta met ZEUS.”

Samantha’s jaw dropped. “Zeus?? I thought these were all NICKNAMES, is there like a literal Greek pantheon?”

Cassie nodded, laughing. “Yeah, the Olympians are a real thing. They’re not quite what Ancient Greeks thought they were, but they’re close enough. And…so… yeah, it turns out Zeus is my …dad.”

Samantha shook her head and grinned, dropping back on her elbows. “Now you’re messing with me.”

The blonde girl grinned back, shaking her head and leaning forward, laughing. “Not even in the slightest. It happened on my sixteenth birthday. I was having a party, and my  _then_  boyfriend—” She winced, and then bit her lip and looked anxiously at Samantha out of the corner of her eye. “—I’m sorry, I don’t know if it’s bad taste to mention your ex-boyfriend on your first date with a girl. I’m not dating savvy.”

Samantha chuckled. “Well unless he’s a constant topic of conversation or you bring him along, I’m not easily offended by exes of any gender.”

Cassandra grinned. “Well, anyway, my boyfriend, Pete, had come over with a couple of my friends from school to surprise me, when suddenly Magala, the seer of the Amazons, appeared in my living room. My friends couldn’t see her, but my mom and I could. We had to shoo everyone away, and then we were summoned and mystically transported to Mount Olympus, where I had to lead a delegation of the human friends of the Amazons to argue that the Olympians should return to our world to revive the Amazons, who Circe had cursed to turn back into clay. After the embassy, Zeus revealed to me that he had once had a liaison with my mother during her time digging in Greece in her 20s.  _I was his ... child_." There was brief, hesitant pause before she said the word, but then she grinned again and carried on. "After we managed to convince the Olympians to come back and restore the Amazons, My dad offered me a birthday gift: I asked for superpowers of my very own.”

Samantha smiled. “Well played.”

“Thank you.” The blonde girl let out a deep sigh and opened her arms then lowered them again. “So that’s my origin story. ... Most of my story, anyway. You could write a comic book now.”

Samantha laughed. “I’m pretty sure I would owe you significant royalties on that one.”

After she finished her story, Cassandra smiled, cocking her head to the side and smiling softly at Samantha with a bit of wonder in her eyes. "You know... I've never told anyone all that before. Not even to Tim, my uh... the boy I dated for the longest, after I turned sixteen."

Samantha smiled equally softly. "What makes me so lucky? I mean I can't be the first person to stumble on your secret identity."

The blonde girl raised an eyebrow and wiggled her nose slightly. "Well, Tim figured it out, but he's a detective. One of my high school friends - Mallory - figured it out, but then she lost her memory of it when Magala wiped it from her mind to protect me. You're the first since!"

Samantha's eyes went a little wide. "Am I in imminent danger of mind-wiping here?"

Cassie shook her head. "No. My 'big sisters' told me that Magala _had_ to wipe Mallory's memory because she couldn't be trusted to keep the information to herself. She was already thinking of selling it to the papers. They told me I was too young to decide who to trust with the secrets of our identities, but that when I was 18 I would have the right to trust my secret to someone, if it was important enough to me that they know."

Sam smiled softly and sat up again, leaning forward slightly. "So if I had a secret no one knew, that trust would go both ways?"

Cassandra raised another eyebrow at Samantha and blinked her eyelashes inquisitively. "...well, yeah, of course. What..." She laughed, quickly and lightly. "Are you about to reveal  _your_ hidden superpowers to me now?"

Samantha sat back a little and turned tomato red. Cassandra blinked again and then sat back, raising her head and eyeing her suspiciously. "What? Really?  _No way_..."

The dark-haired girl's blush receded a little but she was still more or less scarlet, and quieter than ever. "Nobody knows this, no one."

Cassie shook her head slowly, her blonde locks dancing around her face as she blinked in disbelief and confusion. "Wait, wait... what exactly am I about to know? What's your story?"

Sam pushed her hair behind her hair and tucked one leg under the other. "I have always been kinda durable, but then I started getting weird stuff happening around three years ago, like heightened senses. And then I started getting stronger and stronger...I- don't have a piece of furniture in here that's heavy enough to demonstrate."

Cassandra gaped at her, siting forward on Samantha's chair and letting her mouth hang open widely. "...wah... I mean...  _wow_. I can't believe this. How...? Can you  _fly_? What else can you do?"

Samantha smiled. "I _cannot_ fly. That was really _super impressive_. And I have  _no idea_  how. Legitimately no idea. I don't know any super powered people at all, my mom is totally 110% normal, and my da- well."

The blonde girl's head turned slightly and tipped towards the side. Her eyes narrowed curiously. "What about your dad?"

Sammi forced a smile and shrugged. "Not a clue. My mom is the kind of woman that you don't ask twice."

Cassandra snorted and laughed. "Well, the good news is,  _you're not a demigoddess._  I would know." She fingered a small charm bracelet on her wrist. "Diana and Donna warned me that a lot of my immortal half-brothers and sisters and cousins had wound up using their powers for evil ends, so they had Hephaestus craft me a little charm bracelet to alert me whenever I was in the presence of another demigod or goddess in disguise." She frowned, apologetically. "So you have no idea at all?"

"Maybe Italian? My mom has mousy brown hair so it's a pretty good bet I got the hair from him. I have thought about it a bunch but there aren't a whole lot of leads in that department. Private security is my mom's trade so her private stays private as hell."

"Private Security, huh?" Cassie raised her eyebrows at that. "But I had the impression you came from ... money and power and high society. How does Private Security come with so many perks? I should change career paths. Who does your mom work for?" She smiled, teasing the other girl.

Samantha laughed. "Usually, your instincts would be right, stay _faaaar_ away from security in general, but if you get the right client...she works for Lexcorp. Well- she works for Mr. Luthor, really."

The blonde girl's mouth dropped open again. "... whoa. LUTHOR? That's... “ she winced, biting off the first thing she was going to say, and the second, and then improvising. "...  _impressive._ "

Sam nodded, pretty oblivious to the various reactions that she'd just received. "She's really important, and in really high demand. It was kind of nice to move out though, she wasn't there very often anyway."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Cassie made a sympathetic face. "I mean, I know what it's like growing up without a father, but at least I had a semi-doting mother around most of the time. That sounds  _awful._ "

The girl with the blue eyes shrugged and smiled. "I take really good care of myself. And I'm fabulous company."

Cassandra smiled slightly. "...and I'm getting the sense that you've been dying to talk to someone about your abilities, huh?"

Samantha grinned.  "I've been kind of freaked out. Shit doesn't seem to end well for people with these kind of talents who don't have sponsors. But it is nice to say something finally and not have someone call the cops."

"SO... your  _mom_  doesn't know?" Cassandra asked, casually, tugging on one of the runs in her stockings.

Samantha shook her head, hard. "Nooo, no no."

Cassie nodded, biting her lower lip. "...so  _Lexcorp_  isn't aware of your powers, either. That must be hard work, keeping them to yourself."

Samantha shifted on the bed and cocked her head. "Are you angling toward something?"

Cassandra clenched her teeth for a second, making a long thoughtful noise as her eyes darted to the side. "... Having to hide them all the time, you must not have had many opportunities to show them off, huh?"

Sam gave a little smile. "I haven't really even had a chance to test them."

Cassandra got up and walked over to the window, opening it up again. She put her head outside and pulled herself through, floating casually just outside. Glancing around herself to make sure no one was watching, she turned back towards the window and stuck her hand through again, beckoning Samantha with a small smile. "C'mon then."

 

* * *

 

Cassie smiled reassuringly at the other girl and helped her through the window, lifting her effortlessly into her arms. Samantha didn't wobble in Cassandra's hands, because Cassie's grip was steady. "Don't worry," Cassie told the smaller, dark-haired girl. "I'm one of the few young superheroes who  _can fly_ , I have plenty of experience taking my friends into the sky with me. You ready?"

Samantha smirked and slipped an arm around Cassie, peeking up at her from her side. "Do your friends ever get handsy while you do that?"

The blonde girl smiled and blushed slightly. "Uh, well, I did  _date_  one of my crime fighting friends once upon a time, so  _that's a yes._ Never any of the girls, though, before tonight." She grinned down at Sammi and batted her eyelashes provocatively. "Now hold on, here we go..." She raised a hand above her head and they started spinning skyward- slowly at first, but more quickly after a few minutes.

Mid-ascension, Cassie bit her lower lip and glanced down at the blue-eyed girl. Her voice was quiet as she asked "... So are you still  _interested_  in... that?  _Hands on_  and all? ... I was starting to wonder...." she ducked her head nervously.

Sam's arms tightened around her as they ascended and she looked daringly down for a moment before looking back up at Cassie. "Of course I am. You're even more awesome than before _and_ I invited you into my dorm room while I was in my pajamas."

Cassie's heart skipped a beat, and she grinned down at the girl in her arms. "That's what you  _sleep_ in?" She rolled her eyes and gave a groan of frustration. "God I thought that was  _lingerie_.  _Pink Satin_..." Moments later they cleared the height of the tallest building in Metropolis, Lexcorp Tower, and Cassie started drifting them out over the city in the direction of the municipal landfills a few miles up the coast and away from the city.

Samantha laughed and ran her nose lightly across Cassie's collarbone, giving her waist a little squeeze. "Oh, well then I answered you _in my silky lingerie_  and you thought I'd lost interest?"

"Well, you were so interested in  _what_   _I was_ , and  _what I could do..."_ the green-eyed super-heroine shrugged, blushing self-consciously... "I was starting to worry I was becoming just an object of fascination..."

Samantha gave a little smile and ducked her face. "I've been waiting a long time to unburden myself. I thought we were sharing."

"Hmmm..." Cassie raised an eyebrow down at the pretty girl in her arms, and she smiled, encouraged again. "Well, that information puts things in a new light." She began to descend slowly towards the landfills, the rows of stacked cars isolated far, far away from the city and the prying eyes of cameras and cellphone videos.

Samantha got the intention immediately and grinned. "You're lucky I don't get cold or this would be a short evening. It's a little breezy out."

"Well that was test number one." Cassandra grinned. "I figured if the night breezes over Metropolis didn't make you shiver, then you must possess at least some level of invulnerability."

Sam smiled. "Well that's a lot better than throwing a punch."

Cassie couldn't help but notice how pretty Samantha's eyes were when she was smiling. "Well, yeah... I don't want to  _punch_  that beautiful, expertly made-up face," Cassandra muttered, smiling down at Samantha. "But, uh, you did say you were pretty durable, right?"

The other girl nodded. "Alarmingly."

"Alright, good. Enjoy the landing." Cassandra grinned and winked at Samantha ---  
\--- And then let her go. 100 feet above the ground.

Samantha gasped as she began to fall and then controlled the fall after a moment, barreling toward the ground. She bent her knees as she landed but her impact still made the trash around her shudder.

Cassandra grinned at the way she landed and soared down closer to the ground, hovering about 20 feet above her, just outside of reach. "How'd it feel?"

Samantha smirked up at her. "Like being a cannonball. If you come down here I could return the favor."

Cassie shook her head slowly, grinning down at the pretty blue-eyed girl. "Thank you, no, I've had enough being beat up for this evening. But uh, I'll tell you what." She waved her arms wide open at her. "Why don't you come up here and get me?"

The dark-haired girl pulled a face and cocked her head. "I told you, I'm grounded."

Cassandra shook her head and laughed. "You said you couldn’t _fly._  I didn't say anything about  _flying_ , I said 'come get me.' She spun quickly in the air, her coat and arms flying out around her like a cape. "You have superpowers, girl!  _Try_ something!"

Sam looked around herself thoughtfully for a moment before crouching down a bit and then pushing off the ground with an experimental amount of force, launching toward her. Cassandra grinned as Samantha launched herself off the ground with enough force to be intimidating even to her. Her arc was actually going to take the smaller girl over her head, so Cassie shot up straight into the sky and caught Samantha about 50 or 60 feet over the landfill, grunting slightly with the impact and flying backwards about twelve feet before she could stabilize their position in the sky. "Woo! That's awesome! How'd  _that_ feel?"

She laughed, wrapping a stabilizing arm around Cassie. "I didn't even know I could DO that, holy crap!  I've just like, lifted cars or crushed phones."

"I had a feeling! Durability, invulnerability, super-strength... I have a feeling you got one of the  _Superpower_   _package_   _suites_. Wanna see how much you can bench now?" Cassie grinned, squeezing her arm around Samantha's waist.

Samantha smiled and bit her bottom lip. "Sure thing."

Cassandra dropped them both this time, creating matching, small-scale craters in the ground between the rows of cars as she grinned at Samantha, their hair swirling around them in the wind created by the concussive force of their landings. "Alright, well, how about we start stacking cars on you?"

The black-haired beauty chuckled and shook her head. "Until I get smushed?"

Cassandra grinned and turned around, grabbing a crushed, red, four door sedan off of a pile of cars and heaving it over her head with a small grunt. Then she turned around and handed it slowly over to Samantha. "Well, until your knees start buckling, anyway."

Samantha smirked and took the car. "I would talk trash, but I have no idea what's impressive on this scale." She shifted it in her hands and then got a grip on the undercarriage, her wingspan not wide enough to grab either axle.

Cassandra grinned, and then grabbed another car. This one she lifted up into the air about five feet and then slowly lowered it on top of the first. "Still good?"

Sam looked up into the machinery of the car and her bottom lip jutted out. "Yeah I'm golden, I'm actually more worried about the potential for spiders under here."

Cassie laughed lightly. "Oh good, point. Let's hurry up then, huh?" She lifted two more cars off of the pile and lifted them into the sky, straining slightly, groaning, as she eased them down on top of the pile.

Samantha flexed under the pile and cocked her head but still couldn't really see Cassie up above the tower on top of her. "Well, that's got some heft to it."

"Yeah? Good! I certainly don't wanna be stacking these all night." Cassie giggled, grabbing two more cars and, grunting, flew them up over the pile and lowered them on top of it. "That's about twelve tons. I think this is about twenty-five times what a normal man in peak physical condition can lift, so... how're ya doing, cutie?"

Sam laughed and lifted the cars an inch higher. "This is the strangest first date of my life. This is  _heavy._ "

"What, the date, or the cars?" Cassandra teased, grabbing one more car and lifting it up, flying it to the top of the pile, where she gently settled it on top of the rest. "Seven!"

Samantha gave a little whoop from under the pile and pushed her arms upward, grunting. "SEVEN CARS?" Her elbows wobbled a little but she held fast. "That’s insane..."

Cassandra giggled, snorting with excitement. She hadn't had this much fun using her powers with someone since she had originally been given them. "One more!" She grabbed one last car, lifting it over her head and flying it to the top of the pile, lowering it slowly on top of the rest. The stack of cars swayed and creaked with the weight, but it held.

Samantha huffed from under the pile and gave a little groan, adjusting her grip. "Alright, THAT'S pretty freaking heavy."

Cassandra snorted. "You think? I only know a handful of people on the  _planet_ who can lift more than this, including myself and my 'older sisters'. You wanna stop?”

Samantha felt her hands shake under the weight but she was curious and more than that, stubborn. She grunted a little and shook her head. "Try another one."

Cassandra chuckled. "Well, at least if you get buried under all these cars I have a reasonable belief that you won’t be crushed." One more car joined the pile.

Sam grunted and strained for a minute before her knees wobbled. "okay okay too much too  _muchtoomuch_..." Cassie kicked the stack of cars off of her with a mid-air roundhouse, instantly lightening the load by about half. Samantha smirked and lightly tossed aside the remaining cars. "So incredibly strong is an understatement.”

The green-eyed girl shook her head and widened her eyes expressively. "Seems like it. Holy crap, you're strong. Like...  _Diana_  strong, or  _almost_ , maybe."

Samantha grinned again. "Yeah well, I- totally don't work out, so that's not easily explained."

"Hmmmm..." the blonde girl tapped her lips, slowly setting down on the ground. "Wellllllll, let's come back to that, kay? First... let's see what else you can do."

Samantha nodded. "I think I'm pretty fast...the other stuff is hard to demonstrate."

Cassie grinned. "Alright, well, I don't know how you feel about running anywhere in ..." she waved at the flimsy pink satin clothes she was wearing "those delicious garments... but if you move fast enough, I'll be the only one seeing them." She winked.

Samantha laughed. "Well let's hope I can move that fast then." She grinned and wiggled her eyebrows for a moment before she pushed off and ran, weaving between junk piles. She missed once and hit one, bulldozing  **through**  the trash without being slowed down.

Cassandra smiled and sprinted after her, vaulting over the piles of cars and dropping to the ground on other side, resisting the urge to fly to get the edge on her date. But somewhat surprisingly, she found it easier than she expected to keep pace with the blue-eyed beauty: although Samantha's feet beat the earth with power and force, her forward propulsion seemed to be entirely mechanical, a result of super-strength meeting earth, rather than supernatural or mystical 'speed.' On the other hand, Cassandra's fleetness of feet was derived from mystical sources - her feet touched the ground lightly and sped over them with inhuman swiftness and surety.

Sam grinned when Cassandra caught up with her and pushed a little harder, though she could push only so hard before she did damage to the ground beneath her feet. She hadn't yet learned to come into contact with the ground gently with the exception of jumping occasionally- that was always a risky ordeal.

Cassandra grinned as she caught up with Samantha, not pushing any harder, with no need to 'beat' the other girl. Because of the speed with which they were flying through the night, racing around the yard, the wind drowned out their voices, but after a few minutes Cassandra called a halt to the race by just coming to a dead stop in the middle of a wide, open space.

"Woahhhh--oop!" Samantha tripped while trying not to crack the concrete when Cassie stopped and pitched forward. She was well trained enough to tuck into a roll when she did and so bounced to her feet a few feet away.

Cassie smiled at Samantha and paced towards her, trembling a bit with excitement. "Moderate  _super-speed,_ this keeps getting more exciting! Let's try energy abilities now, okay?"

Samantha frowned and raised her eyebrows at once. "What's an energy ability?"

The blonde scrunched up one eye and made a thoughtful noise, trying to explain. "Well, you've seen Superman on TV, right? Sometimes fire comes out of his eyes. And, uh...oh, my friend Stargirl, she channels stellar energy through her staff.... let's see if you have any energy abilities!"

Samantha chuckled and shook her head. "How would I know? Should I just try to- explode something with my mind?"

Cassandra laughed. "... yeah, basically." She waved at a stack of worn rubber tires across the way from them. "Focus on that stack. Use your hands, uh, your eyes, your chest...." she blushed and laughed. "I mean, try to project  _from_  your chest...   _anything._ "

Samantha laughed. "Well, if there's any good excuse for having killer boobs that might be it." She concentrated for a minute, trying, and then made a little face and smirked, wiggling her nose at the stack of tires.

Cassandra watched with anticipation for a long moment, giggling and covering her mouth when she saw Samantha wiggle her nose, but after a few more moments, when it seemed that nothing was going to happen, she shrugged and sighed. "Oh well. Moving on. Super senses?"

Sam tapped an ear. "Hearing and sight for sure -- those are REALLY easy to tell when they start. Unfortunately easy."

Cassandra smiled. "Well let's test the range of those, shall we?"

The blue-eyed girl nodded. "Alright, what do you propose?"

Cassandra grinned. "Well, here's the trick.  _I_  don't have super-hearing, or super-sight, or super-senses-anything. So...." she bit her lower lip in concentration and spun around slowly, looking for a way for Samantha to message her across significant distances. Suddenly, she grabbed a broken car bumper and handed it to Samantha with a grin. "Smash this against a hollow car each time you hear me speak, as I get further and further away."

The other girl laughed and took the bumper in her hands, twirling it like a baton a couple times. "Alright, sounds like fun."

Cassandra grinned and leapt into the sky, twirling off a dozen yards behind a few rows of cars. Then she dropped to the dirt again and whispered ' _can you hear me_?'

Samantha focused on Cassie once she flew away, bending her ear in that direction, then jumped up on the hood of a car and tapped the cab like she was knocking on a door.

Cassandra smiled and repeated the trick several more times, moving further away with each repetition. Each time she moved around she changed position as well, trying to disorient Samantha for the second part of her little test. When she finally passed outside of Samantha's range, she spoke slightly louder and louder until she was convinced that - short of yelling - Samantha could not hear her. She was, at that point, nearly a  _mile_  away from the landfill. Grinning like an idiot at the fun she was having, she glanced to the side with a sudden idea, then jumped up into the air and landed just inside Samantha's range again. " _You're beautiful_ ," she whispered, knowing that Samantha could hear her. " _Absolutely Beautiful. I love your eyes, and how they sparkle. Your hair looks and smells incredible. Your lips look soft and **soooooo** inviting. I've been having daydreams about you since I met you at cheer leading tryouts._" She grinned, trembling slightly with excitement and nervousness, and then took a deep breath. "So if you want me…come and get me."

Samantha relished in the chance to test her abilities, rising to the test eagerly and concentrating in order to focus her hearing in different directions. Her hearing was her most developed skill of all because it was one she could practice and hone secretly. She smiled when she heard Cassandra again, warming to her words, her lashes fluttering. She didn't need to be asked twice, speeding toward the sound and then whirling and using her telescopic vision to spot Cassie, shooting in her direction.

Cassandra waited and grinned as Samantha hurtled towards her. "You are amazing!" She cheered as she came close, catching her up in her arms and spinning her around.

Samantha grinned and cinched her arms around Cassie's shoulders and kissed her, slow and deep and lingering, cupping her cheek in her palm. Her feet dangled a little over a foot off the ground as she clung to Cassie.

Cassandra was surprised and then delighted by the kiss, moaning slowly against Samantha's soft lips as she returned it, her arms tightening around the other girl's slender waist and back as she pulled her up into her embrace. "Ohhhh... oh my..."

Samantha giggled and nipped at her bottom lip, playing with her hair. "Did I wait long enough? Felt like a long time."

Cassandra giggled and whimpered, sucking on Samantha's bottom lip in return, her body positively quivering with excitement. "Ohhhh, much too long. Much, much too long." She set Samantha down again and stepped back a few paces, panting slightly and patting her hair. "You're intoxicating."

Samantha wet her lips, pushing her hair back over her shoulder. "Well, I've got the edge in this outfit."

Cassandra grinned and blushed, biting her lip and giving the blue-eyed, voluptuous girl the once over. "Yes, yes you do. But... uh... that's actually a nice segue to my next ability check." She held her arms out and twirled around. "Can you see what  _I'm_  wearing under all these clothes?" She grinned and licked her lips.

Sam laughed. "If I could, I would have already used that power."

Cassandra pouted, her arms and shoulder sagging in disappointment. But then she grinned, and her eyes sparkled mischievously. "Well, then, maybe you could just come and find out...' She lifted off of the ground and a few feet away. "That is, if you can catch me..."

The dark haired girl's eyes sparkled and she clucked her tongue. " _Such_  a cheat..." She sped after her anyway, jumping over a car on the way.

Cassandra grinned and lifted off into the sky, flipping over a few rows of cars and then beckoning Samantha after her, back towards the city. Then she dropped to the ground, hauled her right arm back, punching through the walls of cars between her and the highway, and then dashed down the road at a superhuman speed.

Samantha's laughter could be heard echoing through the junkyard until the speed of her running swallowed it up, pushing to try and keep up with or at least keep in sight of Cassie as she chased her into the city.

Cassie raced along on the highway right into the city. It took only a minute or so, and once she reached the tall buildings of Midtown Metropolis she leapt up into the sky and landed on top of the first tall building in her path, grinning back at Samantha and blowing her a kiss.

Sam smirked and shook her head, launching herself into the air as hard as she could and scrabbling up the rest of the way with a little effort.

Cassandra waited until she was just a dozen feet shy of the rooftop and then flitted away again, hovering in the sky over the city as she drifted towards the Daily Planet, the big golden sky globe gleaming behind her. She waved Samantha across the 100 feet distance between buildings on either side of the street. "C'mon! You can do it!"

Samantha smirked and walked back to get a running start. "Easy for you to say." She dashed forward and leapt off the edge of the building, landing at the edge of the next one, wincing when she left a crack beneath her feet.

Cassandra grinned, hovering in the sky above Samantha, her coat flapping in the win. "We're thirty blocks from the campus. Rooftop to rooftop, come on!" She dashed off, flying over the buildings.

Samantha smirked and shook her head again, eyeing Cassie where she floated in the sky before she disappeared, running behind her and leaping from rooftop to rooftop, finding the task easier and easier until it was almost effortless. The last jump, from the rooftop of an office building on 5th Avenue, to the rooftop of Samantha's Dorm Hall, was over 120 feet. Samantha's final leap was too far for even her amazing legs to carry her, but at the apex of her leap, Cassandra swooped out of the night and caught the blue-eyed, black-haired girl up in her arms, spinning and dancing her through the air while the wind swirled through their hair and she giggled in the night, squeezing the other girl close and burying her nose and lips in her soft, black hair.

Samantha chuckled when Cassie caught her in mid-"oh-shit" face and wrapped her arms around her, pressing her face against the blonde's long slender neck. Cassie slipped an arm under her legs and carried her wordlessly through the sky towards her dorm hall, smelling her sweet, slightly-musky scent and holding her close as she eased them both back into Samantha's room.

When Cassandra lowered Samantha back onto her feet on the bedroom floor, she smiled, taking a breath. "So... yeah... superpowers."

Samantha smirked and kissed her collar bone playfully. "Not the only thing that's super."

**Author's Note:**

> Super-clone Science stuff: Given the various kinds of tinkering and multi-trial formulae that Lexcorp and Cadmus scientists no-doubt engaged in while trying to produce a viable Super-clone from their small sample of Kryptonian DNA we figure there's no reason that SuperBOY couldn't have been SuperGIRL (keeping in mind that gender isn't automatically tied to genitalia or chromosomes.) A lot of what follows is just speculation about how things might have gone had the Superclone been assigned biologically female at birth. It's also a fantastic excuse to write an awesome ship as femslash. And clones!


End file.
